Alabama Football: Did Nick Saban put a kibosh on Jimbo Fisher?
By Ronald Evans
Something is going on with Jimbo Fisher’s recruiting. The Aggies are not having much success with the ’23 class and some think Nick Saban is the reason why.
For anyone unfamiliar, kibosh carries a meaning, according to Merriam-Webster, that describes,
"something that serves as a check or stop —usually used in the phrase put the kibosh on"
The idiom is sometimes thought to be Yiddish in origin, but a Google search suggests early use may have come from Irish neighborhoods of London, early in the 19th century.
The quaint phrase ‘put the kibosh on’ appears to be what Nick Saban has done to Jimbo Fisher. At least, that appears to be the case for the time being. The 2023 recruiting cycle has many months left, but so far Jimbo and the Aggies are lagging.
The Aggies currently have the No. 58 group of verbal commits as measured by the 247Sports Composite. In the On3 Consensus Team Rankings, Texas A&M is at a lofty No. 35.
Is Nick Saban the reason?
Some who follow college football recruiting closely are thinking the reason for A&M’s modest recruiting success is Nick Saban.
"I haven’t seen that dramatic of a swing in recruiting ever. When Nick Saban comes out and basically says, ‘Yeah, dude, you bought that class.’ This justifies it."
From the same Si.com story, former Penn State linebacker, Lavar Arrington was even more direct.
"So Nick Saban is playing chess, he ain’t playing checkers. He said look, let me put a spotlight where the spotlight needs to be so that it could go back to doing things the way that they’ve been done… Nick is somewhere laughing."
There is no reason to believe Nick Saban takes time to keep up with Jimbo Fisher’s overall class. Of course, Saban knows what is going on with Alabama’s recruiting targets and head-to-head battles with other programs. Nick Saban does not want to lose any of those battles, whether they are against Jimbo, Mario Cristobal, Billy Napier, or any other coach.
Whatever Alabama and Saban are doing is working. On3 has the Crimson Tide at No. 4 and 247Sports’ Team Ranking shows the Tide having the highest average rating for individual recruits at 94.22. No other program has crossed the ’94’ threshold. Texas A&M is at 92.00, which is the third highest among SEC teams.
Next. Crimson Tide recruiting is cruising. dark
Texas A&M can be expected to finish well, but perhaps not near as well as its 2022 No. 1 class. Nick Saban might be the reason why, along with Jimbo Fisher’s foolishness.